8.
5. set clear minimum and progressive criteria to
ensure that the conditions of production and trade of
all Fairtrade certified products are socially,
economically fair and environmentally responsible.

9.
Principles specific to small producer organizations
….don’t depend on hired workers all the time, but run their farm mainly by using
their own and their family’s labour ……... Profits should be equally distributed
among the producers………. All members have a voice and vote in the decision-
making process of the organization.

10.
Principles specific to hired labour
…. Forced labour and child labour is prohibited…… the right to join an independent
union to collectively negotiate their working conditions ….. Working conditions are
equitable for all workers. Salaries must be equal or higher than the regional average
or than the minimum wage. Health and safety measures must be established in
order to avoid work-related injuries.

11.
In 2007 Fairtrade sales amounted to approximately €2.3 billion
worldwide, a 47 % year-to-year increase over 2006. At the end
of 2008 there were 872 Certified Producer Organizations in 58
developing countries. That represents more than 1.5 million
producers, about 7.5 million people, including dependents,
who are benefiting directly from Fairtrade.

12.
Sources products from worker and
farmer owned cooperatives and
accredited fair trade factories
First non-food company in
Australia (and second in the world)
to be accredited fair trade.

16.
CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC ARGUMENTS
Price Distortion
Similar to other farm subsidies, fair trade
attempts to set a price floor for a good that is
in many cases above the market price and
therefore encourages, as fair trade opponents
claim, existing producers to produce more
and new producers to enter the market,
leading to excess supply, leading to lower
prices in the non-Fair Trade market.

17.
CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC
ARGUMENTS
Impact on conventional producers
debate
Fairtrade does not address the basic
problem, which is that too much coffee is
being produced in the first place. Instead, it
could even encourage more production.”

18.
CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC
ARGUMENTS
Bias towards cooperatives
Certification is predicated on political
assumptions about the best way to organise
labour. In particular, for some commodities
certification is available only to co-operatives of
small producers, who are deemed to be most
likely to give workers a fair deal when deciding
how to spend the Fairtrade premium. Coffee
plantations or large family firms cannot be
certified.

19.
CONVENTIONAL ECONOMIC ARGUMENTS
Retail pricing debate
Retailers add their own enormous mark-ups to Fairtrade
products and mislead consumers into thinking that all of
the premium they are paying is passed on. The
Economist estimated that only 10% of the premium paid
for Fairtrade coffee in a coffee bar trickles down to the
producer. Fairtrade coffee, like the organic produce sold
in supermarkets, is used by retailers as a means of
identifying price-insensitive consumers who will pay
more.

20.
THE GEOIST PARADIGM I
Third World aid
If the poor don’t own the land on
which they live, what will happen to
their unavoidable rent when good
people from the First World try to
better their lot by building:

30.
- hammering, through the tax system,
agricultural practices which lead to soil erosion

31.
- Making producers and users of excessive packaging
pay for the resultant use (and perhaps pollution of) landfill

32.
- As moral sentiments don’t seem to discourage many of those putting
our biodiversity at risk (GM, land clearing etc. ), let’s send them
monetary signals! The Monsantos of this world should also put up an
Ecological Security Deposit in case they bugger things up.

33.
THE GEOIST PARADIGM III
The ultimate cause of sweat-shop
conditions – unemployment.
And its solution!